'Daisy Jones and The Six' by Taylor Jenkins Reid

From the BLURB: 

There was Daisy, rock and roll force of nature, brilliant songwriter and unapologetic drug addict, the half-feral child who rose to superstardom. 

There was Camila, the frontman’s wife, too strong-willed to let the band implode – and all too aware of the electric connection between her husband and Daisy. 

There was Karen, ice-cool keyboardist, a ferociously independent woman in a world that wasn’t ready for her. 

And there were the men surrounding them: the feuding, egotistical Dunne brothers, the angry guitarist chafing on the sidelines, the drummer binge-drinking on his boat, the bassist trying to start a family amid a hedonistic world tour. They were creative minds striking sparks from each other, ready to go up in flames. 

It’s never just about the music…

Late contender for one of my FAVE books of 2019 - 'Daisy Jones and the Six' by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

I loved her other book, 'The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo' so I shouldn’t be surprised that this one hooked me too ... she’s changing up the Golden Days of Hollywood flashbacks for the Rock N’ Roll 70s LA scene in interview format with this book that’s *very* ‘Almost Famous’ meets 'A Star is Born' (the Gaga and Bradley one!) via ‘The Commitments’ by way of Fleetwood Mac’s story.

This is an interesting format for a fiction-book, fair warning. It's set out in an interview-format (does that still count as an "epistolary novel"?) like you're reading the transcribed notes of a Rolling Stone interview, or the transcript of a VH1 'Behind the Music' episode... there's a core cast of characters that make up the infamous band at the centre of the "biopic" but as they mention moments (like their album-cover photo-shoot) other people creep in to give their point-of-view (like the photographer, for example). 

I haven't seen too many people who couldn't get over the format, and pretty universally I see readers appreciate what it brings to the story - an ability for character's to tell their own history, their own way; maybe it's misremembered (clashing with other's character's consensus memory), outright lies, or situations coloured by more information as to what someone was going through themselves at the time. It adds so much to the dynamics of the band and new facets to the problems they face (namely; that it's a whole bunch of disparate people coming together with all their clashing ideas and sensibilities to make art) and it is *fascinating*! 

From the outset, you also feel that the interview is building towards ... *something*. Something happens with this band that shoots them into the stratosphere (so that however-many-years in the future, they're worthy of an epic biopic) but also that everyone's memories are coming across bittersweet. Not just nostalgic, but tinged with individual regret from that time. It gives the novel a central "whodunit?" kind of mysterious atmosphere as we go along on this ride through memory-lane to find out where everyone ended up. And I've got to say - the interview format kind of lulled me into this false-sense of perception, so that when the *little* reveal happens towards the end I literally cried out with emotion, and then proceeded to bawl my eyes out. 

This is looking to be the first of Taylor Jenkins Reid's books to be adapted - and I can see why. I think it'll work really well as a TV mini-series, and it's a stroke of genius to have cast Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough in the lead (I mean!!!!). I’m really hanging out for the casting of my faves though - Karen & Graham though. 

I LOVED this book. It was like reading particularly salacious celebrity gossip but with depth and wonder, romance and heartache and I just can not recommend it enough. Definitely a fave of 2020. 

5/5

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‘Affliction’ Book 22 'Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter' series by Laurell K Hamilton

From the BLURB:

Micah’s estranged father lies dying, rotting away inside from some strange ailment that has his doctors whispering about “zombie disease.”

Anita Blake makes her living off of zombies—but these aren’t the kind she knows so well. These creatures hunt in daylight, and are as fast and strong as vampires. If they bite you, you become just like them. And round and round it goes…Where will it stop? Even Anita Blake doesn’t know.

‘Affliction’ is Book 22 in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series.

I’ve given up on a lot of series. The Black Dagger Brotherhood series? Gave up. Got sick of all the otherworldly vampire women of unparalleled physical beauty. Gini Koch’s Kitty Katt series was still enjoyable, but just got a little too outlandish for me. Kitty Norville by Carrie Vaughn – kaput for me. Got the feeling that there was no end in sight and no over-arching story to thrill and hook me. One series that I gave up on a long time ago, was Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series – that I loved in the beginning, but like many original fans I flamed out when it basically became a cheap erotica series with questionable consent. I bowed out in a big way, with a scorched-earth kinda-joke but also kinda-serious review of Hit List.

Well. That was 2011. Approaching the end of the decade I had a charitable moment of thinking *maybe* I should check back into the series (which has since gone on to Book 26, when I tapped out at Book 20). I thought maybe the series had realigned, course-corrected and I was just curious to see what these characters I once loved were up to.

Readers – I should have left well enough alone. I should have finished at the drinking-game, and closed the door on this series I’d given up on. Instead … I didn’t even get 100 pages into Affliction before I had to remove myself from the absurdity and injury of reading characters I once loved in such a degraded, disinterested and disastrous instalment.

I’m … I’m just going to show you the scene that made me tap out, put a nail in and then pour concrete on the coffin of this once-great series.

The only background you need is alluded to in the blurb – Micah is one of Anita’s permanent boyfriends, and one of two she actually lives with. She’s just been told that Micah’s estranged father is dying, and his mother has encouraged Anita to get Micah on a plane to come and see him one last time.

Anita goes into action-mode and starts coordinating flights, resources, etc…. she calls her other live-in honey, Nathaniel, to ask him to pack their bags, and this is their exchange;

‘I need some shirts that aren’t low-cut, okay?’ 

‘We love your breasts,’ he said, his voice holding that upward lilt that said he was smiling. 

I smiled. ‘I appreciate that, I even approve, but let’s not overwhelm his family with my assets the first time.’ 

‘Would I pack so that all that creamy goodness was on display in every shirt?’ he asked in that false innocent voice. 

‘Yes,’ I said, and laughed. 

‘I promise to pack some regular T-shirts, but most of your dressy tops are low-cut.’

'That’s because the plain silk shell blouses don’t lie right when I wear them,’ I said. 

‘They aren’t designed for someone with a triple-E cup, Anita. I didn’t even know that you could have that big a cup size and be as lean as you are without surgical help.’ 

‘Genetics is a wonderful thing,’ I said. 

‘Yay, genetics!’ he said with so much enthusiasm it made me laugh. 

‘I’ll pack so we’ll match but won’t embarrass Micah. Promise’.

I … I have no words for those words.

They are abysmal. And all the more insulting for what Anita Blake once *was* - an exciting and complex female superhero, frankly, in a paranormal-noir landscape of monsters masquerading as men. This series started out so interesting for being full of grey-areas and thrilling whodunnit’s … now it’s cheap, and nasty. Anita Blake isn’t a Mary Sue, she’s worse – coming across like a walking, talking example of a woman made for the male-gaze (in a series with a largely female fanbase?) and coming across like a cloying attempt to Make Men Like Me.

That’s what the above scene boils down to, for me – “look at my big boobs and little frame! Tee-hee!” She’s like a demented Betty Boop and it’s all the more saddening and maddening for the fact that Hamilton has increasingly alluded and aligned Anita’s life to her own.

I should have left well enough alone, it’s true. I’ve no one to blame but myself for dipping my toes back into this cesspool. I still own Books 1 – 10, which is about as much of the series as I’m willing to still claim pride in as a fan. But everything beyond that is a sad trash-fire that’s continuing to burn, inexplicably.

0-stars.

You get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir.

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'Three Women' by Lisa Taddeo

Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB: 

All Lina wanted was to be desired. How did she end up in a marriage with two children and a husband who wouldn't touch her? 

All Maggie wanted was to be understood. How did she end up in a relationship with her teacher and then in court, a hated pariah in her small town? 

All Sloane wanted was to be admired. How did she end up a sexual object of men, including her husband, who liked to watch her have sex with other men and women?

Three Women is a record of unmet needs, unspoken thoughts, disappointments, hopes and unrelenting obsessions.

Ok. So I’m a little obsessed with this book, 'Three Women' by Lisa Taddeo.

Not ... not so much the *topic* - which follows three white, ordinary, mostly heterosexual American women over the course of eight-years and specifically mapping their sexual history, encounters, and desires... But the FORM, the narrative non-fiction style in which it’s written is a master-stroke and makes for compulsive reading. It really does impress like fiction and it’s hard to remember these are real women, but it’s also so incredible to discover the research Taddeo put into this.

If you don't know the background to this book yet, you should definitely look it up (this Guardian article was good) - but the crib-notes are that it took Taddeo eight years to write as she went all over America interviewing dozens of potential subjects who, for various reasons either dropped out of her project or were suitable by the end ... until these three women were left. 

Quite a few people have already pointed out in various interviews and reviews that 'Three Women' isn't exactly a wide cross-section. It's three, heteronormative and largely lower to upper-middle-class white women and their (therefore) rather limited and specific sexual and romantic desires (plus Taddeo's migrant mother, whose story Taddeo tells in a type of flashback). 

I definitely think the limited scope of this exploration should be taken into account, but I didn't find that it lessened my perverse enjoyment of the writing, and begrudging curiosity of the subject-matter. At a time when white women are being particularly destructive the world over - but especially due to their social and political leanings - I think it's fair enough their their sexual provocations and machinations are put under the microscope, particularly in the realms of middle-America to try and unpick some of the Kinsey-ex logic to unlocking what makes them tick. 

I really did enjoy this book; and I can see how these women are maybe a microcosm for a small section of modern, middle-class sex & sexuality? But I really do think it’s Taddeo’s style that elevates everything and does feel like you’re reading an impressive new literary star. For that alone I do think it’s one of the must-read books of 2019! 

4/5
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'Pumpkinheads' by Rainbow Rowell

From the BLURB: 

A smart and swoony Rainbow Rowell romance in full colour graphic novel form. 

Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends. 

Every autumn, all through high school, they’ve worked together at the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world (not many people know that the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world is in Omaha, Nebraska, but it definitely is). They say goodbye every Halloween, and they’re reunited every September 1. 

But this Halloween is different - Josiah and Deja are finally seniors, and this is their last season at the pumpkin patch. Their last shift together. Their last goodbye. 

Josiah’s ready to spend the whole night feeling melancholy about it. Deja isn’t ready to let him. She’s got a plan: What if instead of moping they went out with a bang? They could see all the sights! Taste all the snacks! And Josiah could finally talk to that cute girl he’s been mooning over for three years . . . 

What if their last shift was an adventure? 

Beloved writer Rainbow Rowell and Eisner Award–winning artist Faith Erin Hicks have teamed up to create Pumpkinheads, a tender and hilarious story about two irresistible teens discovering what it means to leave behind a place - and a person - with no regrets.

‘Pumpkin Heads’ Graphic Novel by Rainbow Rowell, illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks 

I absolutely tore through this last night and thoroughly delighted in it. Basically the same premise as Rowell’s short-story ‘Midnights’ (from the Stephanie Perkins Anthology ‘My True Love Gave To Me’ and later included in a cute little novella) about the once-a-year meeting of two people who get along fabulously.

This time it’s the fall seasonal workers Deja and Josiah who’ve been working the Succotash Hut together at their local Pumpkin Patch for four years. They’re seasonal friends who don’t meet up outside of Halloween busy work, but when they are together in October it’s clearly a laugh-riot. But this is their final season together, with school ending and both of them moving on from the Patch - so Deja decides she’ll need to help shy Josiah *finally* talk to Fudge Shoppe girl who he’s been crushing on these many years.

Their final working night together becomes an adventure through the Pumpkin Patch and it’s completely hilarious and adorable; Rowell’s sweet Young Adult tale perfectly matched to Hicks’ bold graphic style, with plenty of delightful details throughout. I’ll admit - being Aussie - the enormity of the Pumpkin Patch lifestyle was a *little* lost on me ... but it’s charming more than confusing.

I think the true success of this graphic novel is that it's a contained timeline - spanning the dying hours of Dega and Josiah's last shift at the Patch - it's a completely self-contained story. Rowell's brilliant writing gets across what Deja and Josiah mean to one another, as they reminisce about their time at the Patch and have such an easy camaraderie and repartee, readers really feel the intimacy of their friendship and shared-history, and can also wallow in the feeling of something so special coming to an end ... it's a tricky balance that Rowell absolutely perfects; she does nostalgia very well, and has such an astute understanding of the connections young people forge and the power of place in their lives. 

Faith Erin Hicks was also the perfect illustrator for this long-awaited project. I'm familiar with her work because I loved 'Friends with Boys' and 'Pumpkinheads' reminded me to check out more of her work. Rowell brilliantly uses Deja and Josiah's dialogue to communicate nostalgia and connection; Faith Erin Hick's bold illustrations have so many tiny and delightful details throughout; it gives another layer of thoughtfulness and specialness to the Pumpkin Patch setting especially, that makes it feel so much more real and unique to characters and readers alike. 

And I’m just hoping Deja and Josiah end up getting more seasonal work together - maybe at a Santa’s Grotto? This was *gorgeous* and I highly recommend. 

5/5

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'The Friend Zone' by Abby Jimenez

From the BLURB:

Kristen Petersen doesn't do drama, will fight to the death for her friends, and has no room in her life for guys who just don't get her. She's also keeping a big secret: facing a medically necessary procedure that will make it impossible for her to have children.

Planning her best friend's wedding is bittersweet for Kristen—especially when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. He's funny, sexy, never offended by her mile-wide streak of sarcasm, and always one chicken enchilada ahead of her hangry. Even her dog, Stuntman Mike, adores him. The only catch: Josh wants a big family someday. Kristen knows he'd be better off with someone else, but as their attraction grows, it's harder and harder to keep him at arm's length.

The Friend Zone will have you laughing one moment and grabbing for tissues the next as it tackles the realities of infertility and loss with wit, heart, and a lot of sass.

‘The Friend Zone’ is the debut contemporary romance novel by US author Abby Jimenez.

Props to Dymocks 234 in Melbourne – their romance section is an absolute delight to browse, and a few weeks ago I did exactly that when I found Jimenez’s debut book! This had previously not been on my radar, which isn’t hard these days; I feel like I’m drowning in a TBR-pile which has resulted in this weird FORO (fear of reading-out) and a little reading-stagnation. So I’ve really tried blocking out chatter of the next “must-read” because much like grocery-shopping when hungry, you shouldn’t book-browse when in a rut because you’ll try to fix the problem buying more books you don’t really want to read. But buy this I did after the blurb intrigued me; I started reading it 2 days ago, and last night I finished it just after midnight and on an absolute high from having my mojo back!

What makes this book stand-out is the heroine’s journey and “obstacle” to her happiness. Kristen has fallen for her best friend’s fiancée’s best-man, and despite some initial relationship hurdles, the main thing stopping her from finding happiness with fireman babe Josh is her inability to give him a family. Josh wants enough kids to fill out a baseball team, but Kirsten suffers from Uterine Fibroid Embolization (non-cancerous growths in the uterus which can affect a woman’s ability to conceive children, results in 19-day periods for Kirsten and excruciating cramps/bleeding). Recent medical acceptance that things like endometriosis are in fact *real* and not female-exaggeration have made for really interesting discussions in the medical field (read Gabrielle Jackson’s Guardian piece ‘Why don't doctors trust women?Because they don't know much about us’ which boils down to; “The medical community have known for a century that women are living in constant pain. They’ve done nothing about it”).

In ‘The Friend Zone’ is the first book I’ve personally read that centres this narrative for the female protagonist – and really confronts the pressures and heartache of chronic pain, as well as the emphasis society places on women’s bodies to function a certain way (and when they don’t, some are left to feel “less than”). I’d love to read more books with this narrative focus; it’s refreshing, modern, complex and important. I’m sure many readers will feel seen via this book and story (which is also why the ending *kind of* fails on the premise – but romance is about wish-fulfillment and self-actualisation so I’ll let it pass).

It helps that ‘The Friend Zone’ is also a really HOT book; Kirsten and Josh are a fab couple to read about with just as much snark and spark as they have hot n’ heaviness – it means the stakes in their ‘happily ever after’ feel real and complex.

That being said – I will warn that the latter-half of the book becomes a REAL blindside gut-punch I was not prepared for. I’d already cried throughout the middle, so to be whammied with that ending was … a shock. I will say it left me *desperate* for the second book (‘The Happy Ever After Playlist’ coming in April 2020) but for a romance it was maybe just a little uneven for the last warm and fuzzy I want to be left with? But I guess that’s where ‘The Friend Zone’ is maybe hedging more into ‘chick lit’ and women’s fiction than straight-up contemporary romance. Fair warning.

Overall; I loved this book. It absolutely pulled me out of my reading-rut by delivering on heat and heartache and having me yo-yo between laughs and tears. I can’t wait to read more from Abby Jimenez; even if I’ll be going into her future books with a little more armour, knowing she’s one to enjoy a reader-blindside.

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4.5/5

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'Brazen and the Beast' The Bareknuckle Bastards #2 by Sarah MacLean

From the BLURB: 

The Lady’s Plan

When Lady Henrietta Sedley declares her twenty-ninth year her own, she has plans to inherit her father’s business, to make her own fortune, and to live her own life. But first, she intends to experience a taste of the pleasure she’ll forgo as a confirmed spinster. Everything is going perfectly... until she discovers the most beautiful man she’s ever seen tied up in her carriage and threatening to ruin the Year of Hattie before it’s even begun.

The Bastard’s Proposal

When he wakes in a carriage at Hattie’s feet, Whit, a king of Covent Garden known to all the world as Beast, can’t help but wonder about the strange woman who frees him—especially when he discovers she’s headed for a night of pleasure... on his turf. He is more than happy to offer Hattie all she desires... for a price.

An Unexpected Passion

Soon, Hattie and Whit find themselves rivals in business and pleasure. She won’t give up her plans; he won’t give up his power... and neither of them sees that if they’re not careful, they’ll have no choice but to give up everything... including their hearts. 

'Brazen and the Beast' is the second book in Sarah MacLean's new historical romance series, 'The Bareknuckle Bastards'.

I became OBSESSED with this new his-rom from MacLean, that is largely set in the "underworld" of London in Covent Garden, and is a bit of an upstairs/downstairs for centring around four siblings - three of whom are from the "gutters" and the first two books focused on brothers Devil and Beast, had them paired with ladies ("toffs") from the gentry. 

First book was about Devil and Felicity, who are now married when we dive into 'Brazen and the Beast' which is all about brother Beast and his Lady Henrietta Sedley. 

Surprising no one, this second book from MacLean is more brilliance; an absolute master-class in a new era of historical romance that is both feminist, progressive, and hot as all get-out! 

It starts with Henrietta 'Hattie' being a larger-than-life woman (literally) who has always been *too much* for the ton; too loud, tall, plump, ambitious ... her father runs a shipping company, and it is her great desire to inherit it over her brother and have some control over her own life and future. Since Hattie is 29 and unlikely to ever wed, running the family business is her one chance to be the master of her fate - until she crosses paths with Beast 'Whit' Bareknuckle Bastard of London. 

This is more of MacLean casting off the ballrooms and sitting-rooms of most historical romances, of putting aside this idea of nobility and class to delve into much more working-class and inclusive sides of London rarely seen in such books - and it's the reading-equivalent of loosening our corsets, for readers and Hattie alike. It even changes the tropes of his-rom, when we have Hattie who is so desperate to take herself out of that gentry equation and not marry into money or security, but make her own way and take care of herself. It's incredible that MacLean is totally upending the usual "rules" of the genre, but still settling us into this fabulous saga series based around a family whose rejection of title is both what made them, and what could break them ...

Hattie and Beast/Whit are SUCH a good pairing. MacLean really explores in them, this idea of equality - and what it means to truly be *partners*, especially in a world where women are reliant on men to dictate all aspects of their lives ... and it's also so interesting for how she puts a microscope on this within romantic relationships of the genre, when a key ingredient for a happy-ending is the hero choosing her own path. Also: Whit and Hattie are HOT. This is some of the best sex-scenes and scenes if intimacy, reminding why and how MacLean remains at the top of this game. It's pretty hard to see how future book/s in the series will top Beast...

On that note; I'm a little in two minds about the next book in the series being about Grace and Ewan - the latter being the menacing brother-villain looming over the whole series, and Grace as his childhood sweetheart he's been made to believe has died. Part of me was hoping that *maybe* Grace and Ewan wouldn't be paired up, only so we could get TWO more books in this series .... I also half-hoped that *maybe* Grace could get an LGBT+ storyline (though in 'Brazen' we get the hints of a fabulous one, between Hattie's friend Nora and Covent sentry Anika - that I hope continues into the next book) ... and I thought it could be interesting if Ewan's story was about having to move on from what he thought was his GREAT LOVE, and what that would do to who he eventually ends up with - someone who won't want to feel like they'll always place second? 

BUT; it does seem that MacLean is steadfast in pairing Ewan and Grace, and I am resigned ... and also keen to see how she'll flip and subvert what is clearly meant to be a Catherine and Heathcliff dysfunctional pairing (Please - I am here for MacLean to scream from the rooftops that "WUTHERING HEIGHTS IS NOT A ROMANCE!" and show us how it would need to be flipped and fixed to become one). 

I also appreciated 'Brazen and the Beast' for the little cameos from MacLean's other series (I noted two - but I'm sure there's more I didn't realise or haven't read yet?). It was a lovely reminder of how full and well-rounded this world feels that MacLean keeps dipping us back into, and why I'm so sad to think there's only one 'Bareknuckle Bastards' book left. Bring on 2020!

5/5

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'A Constant Hum' by Alice Bishop

From the BLURB:

It’ll all be okay, my mother said, and I remember the way her familiar face scrunched, afterwards – reflected back at me, in the fogged bathroom mirror, when she thought I couldn’t see. 

Before the fire – before the front of flames roars over the hills—the ridge is thick with gums. After the fire, all the birds have gone. There is only ash and melted metal, the blackened husks of cars. And the lost people: on the TV news in borrowed clothes, in temporary accommodation on the outskirts of the city, or remembered in small offerings outside the town hall. 

A Constant Hum grapples with the aftermath of bushfire with an eye for the telling detail. Some of these stories cut to the bone; others are empathetic tales of survival, even hope. All are gripping and stunningly written, heralding the arrival of a vital new voice in Australian fiction.

Well, that was a feast made from grief and completely, hauntingly, divine. ‘A Constant Hum’ by Alice Bishop is a Short Story Collection based on the aftermath of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. 

It features a variation of viewpoints and Short Story forms - everything from minisagas to microfiction, and microstory (of only a few words) interspersed with flash fiction and longer form short stories too. 

Horses

There were still reports, years later, of the horses that night: their coats matted and sweet from sweat in smoke-blurred headlights.  

The pace of them - longer and short form one after the other - makes it read like the waves and stages of grief. And sometimes we get the barest hint of an aspect of the tragedy, like it’s all we can handle of the whole. One line a character utters in a story hints at these fleeting moments: ‘It’s okay, Haze, sometimes things just disappear.’ 

It’s stunning, and unsurprising that Bishop herself grew up in Christmas Hills - one town devastated by the fires. This collection feels both assured and vulnerable, a hard and hurting reading but necessary and so very, very fulfilling. I loved it.

It’s also worth reading her acknowledgments at the back - and the very end, where Bishop lists all the places where many of the stories were previously published or recognised: journals and magazines, websites, and short story prizes ... it highlights how long Bishop has been writing and finessing this collection, and it’s proof-positive that building a writing resume (particularly of your short-story work) is well worth doing. It takes time, but the best things often do.

5/5

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